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Indiana University Press - Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi

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136 pages

English

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Description

When We Collide is a landmark reassessment of the significance of sex in contemporary Jewish ethics. Rebecca Epstein-Levi offers a fresh and vital exploration of sexual ethics and virtue ethics in conversation with rabbinic texts and feminist and queer theory.

Epstein-Levi explores how sex is not a special or particular form of social interaction but one that is entangled with all other forms of social interaction. The activities of sex—doing it, talking about it, thinking about it, regulating it—are sites of ongoing moral formation on individual, interpersonal, and communal levels.

When We Collide explores the development of Jewish sexual ethics, and represents an opportunity to move beyond the usual heteronormative accounts that are presented as though they were neutral representations of what "Judaism teaches about sex."

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I: Groundings
1. Textual Intercourse: Grounding Sexual Ethics in Jewish Sources
2. Social Intercourse: Why Sex Is Enmeshed in Sociality
3. Risky Business: Why Risk Is Inherent in Sociality
Part II: Case Studies on Community and Risk
4. STIs: Infection, Impurity, and Managing Social Contagion
5. BDSM: Risk, Pleasure, and Polymorphous Community
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

Sacred Sexuality

Sexually transmitted disease

Body (disambiguation)

Rabbinic

Judaism

BDSM

Bondage et discipline, domination et soumission et sado-masochisme

Informations

Publié par	Indiana University Press
Date de parution	07 mars 2023
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780253065025
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,1700€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

WHEN WE COLLIDE
NEW JEWISH PHILOSOPHY AND THOUGHT
WHEN WE COLLIDE
SEX, SOCIAL RISK, AND JEWISH ETHICS
REBECCA J. EPSTEIN-LEVI
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.org
2023 by Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
First printing 2023
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Epstein-Levi, Rebecca J., author.
Title: When we collide : sex, social risk, and Jewish ethics / Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi.
Description: Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press, 2023. | Series: New Jewish philosophy and thought | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022024556 (print) | LCCN 2022024557 (ebook) | ISBN 9780253064998 (hardback) | ISBN 9780253065001 (paperback) | ISBN 9780253065018 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Sex-Religious aspects-Judaism. | Sexual ethics. | Jewish ethics. | Rabbinical literature-History and criticism.
Classification: LCC BM720.S4 E617 2023 (print) | LCC BM720.S4 (ebook) | DDC 296.3/6-dc23/eng/20220608
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022024556
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022024557
FOR SARAH ,
who keeps me vulnerable and thereby keeps me kind
FOR KATHRYN ,
who by her example as a Christian taught me how to be a Jew.
AND FOR MY WHOLE CHOSEN FAMILY ,
who are at once a wonderful, mad, unruly community and yet one of a kind, no category .
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART I: Groundings
1. Textual Intercourse: Grounding Sexual Ethics in Jewish Sources
2. Social Intercourse: Why Sex Is Enmeshed in Sociality
3. Risky Business: Why Risk Is Inherent in Sociality
PART II: Case Studies on Community and Risk
4. STIs: Infection, Impurity, and Managing Social Contagion
5. BDSM: Risk, Pleasure, and Polymorphous Community
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THIS BOOK DEVELOPED OUT of my dissertation (University of Virginia, 2017), Safe, Sane, and Attentive: Toward a Jewish Ethic of Sex and Public Health, and chapters 1 and 4 in particular draw heavily on the work I did in it. It also means that I owe debts of gratitude to the many people who helped me complete that project, beginning with my director, Margaret Mohrmann. Margaret s encouragement, mentorship, formidable editorial powers, and, above all, friendship have helped me develop into a far better and more rigorous scholar than I otherwise would be, and her sense of humor has helped me remember not to take myself too seriously. The other members of my committee-Elizabeth Shanks Alexander, Beth Epstein, and Peter Ochs-also played critical roles in the development of this project and in my development as a scholar. Peter Ochs, perhaps more than anyone else, has shaped me as a Jewish reasoner, and it is thanks to his intense and prophetic love for the never-ending dance between living text, engaged interpretation, and inspired practice that I have learned to work with texts as genuine partners. Elizabeth Shanks Alexander-also a formidable editrix-has taught me invaluable hermeneutic rigor. Thanks to Liz, I know the importance of a clear and focused pair of reading glasses for the construction and proper use of strong and effective riot gear. And I am deeply grateful for Beth Epstein s kindness, encouragement, and relentlessly practical focus. Others in the Religion Department at UVA who contributed immeasurably to this project and to my development as a scholar include Asher Biemann, Larry Bouchard, Jim Childress, Martien Halvorson-Taylor, Willis Jenkins, Charles Mathewes, Karl Shuve, and Liz Smith. Special mention must go to Professor Vanessa Ochs, who is my rabbi and friend as well as my professor, and to Nichole Flores, whose insights in conversation have enriched the project and who has also become a dear friend. So too must thanks be given to my friends and cohorts: Deborah Barer, Mark Randall James, and Kathryn Ray read and commented on substantial sections of this work at various stages of drafting, and my work is richer and more rigorous for their insights. Conversations with Ashleigh Elser, Nauman Faizi, Kelly Figueroa-Ray, Emily Filler, Charlie Gillespie, Paul Gleason, Joe Lenow, and Daniel Wise also developed and refined my arguments in important ways.
Thanks are also due to colleagues at Oberlin College, where I taught while I finished the dissertation: Cindy Chapman, Martino Dibeltulo Concu, Cheryl Cottine, Rabbi Megan Doherty, Laura Herron, David Kamitsuka, Margaret Kamitsuka, Tamika Nunley, Abe Socher, Sarah Pierce Taylor, and Danielle Terrazas Williams. Particular thanks go to Chip Lockwood, without whose encouragement and accountability during our Wednesday morning writing dates I would have been far harder pressed to finish on time.
As the project began its long metamorphosis from dissertation to book, I continued to draw on the invaluable guidance of Margaret Mohrmann and Liz Alexander, who read significant parts of the book manuscript at various points and provided both critical insight, invaluable support, and incredibly warm and lovely cheerleading as I developed the project from a dissertation to a full-fledged book. Dear friends both inside the academy and out also read and discussed parts of this book at various stages in its development and provided invaluable feedback. Particular thanks are due to Laura Alexander, Wendy Love Anderson, Deborah Barer, Jessica Belasco, Julia Watts Belser, Fannie Bialek, Becca Colmer, Emily Filler, Bramble Graham, Alyssa Henning, Carly Palans, Michal Raucher, Kathryn Ray, Ruti Regan, and Vesper. Y all are one of a kind, no category.
Thanks are also due to the students in various iterations of my Jewish Sexual Ethics course at Oberlin College, Washington University in St. Louis, and Vanderbilt University, who read and discussed parts of the manuscript at various stages in its development. This book is richer and more thoughtful for their input. And my mentors and cohorts in the Sacred Writes Public Scholarship Training Fellowship-Vicki Brennan, Elizabeth Bucar, Brian Clites, Alison Melnick Dyer, Shreena Gandhi, Megan Goodwin, Sajida Jalalzai, Brett Krutzch, Tia Noelle Pratt, and Kayla Rene Wheeler-helped me fully understand and articulate the public appeal and import of my project.
I drafted the vast majority of the manuscript during my tenure as the Friedman Postdoctoral Fellow in Jewish Studies at Washington University in St. Louis (2017-2019), which gave me the time, resources, and space necessary to do this work. I m grateful to my mentors and colleagues there, especially Wendy Love Anderson, Pamela Barmash, Nancy Berg, Fannie Bialek, Martin Jacobs, Hillel Kieval, Aria Nakisa, Nancy Reynolds, Stephen Scordias, Lesile Smith, and Vasiliki Touhouliotis. As I ve finalized the manuscript from my current position at Vanderbilt University, I m also infinitely grateful for the support I ve received from my colleagues here, especially my amazing chairs, Katherine Crawford and Allison Schachter, who have been incredible advocates for me. Thanks are also due to Julia Cohen, Elizabeth Reeves Covington, Sydney Grimes, Barbara Kaeser, Shaul Kelner, Stacy Clifford Simplican, and Danyelle Valentine.
The project would have been, of course, impossible without Gary Dunham, Anna Francis, Ashante Thomas, and Darja Malcolm-Clarke at Indiana University Press (IUP), as well as Megan Schindele at Amnet and indexer Melissa Stearns Hyde. I m massively grateful to Zachary Braiterman, in his role as series editor for the New Jewish Philosophy and Thought series at IUP for expressing interest in the manuscript and shepherding it through the processes of submission and review, and to the invaluable guidance I received from my anonymous reviewers. Additionally, Martin Kavka provided invaluable, gimlet-eyed-and hilarious -support and editorial insight throughout this stage, and I genuinely don t know where I d be on the project without him. And a massive cheer for Meli Sameh, who did brilliant work formatting the final manuscript, assembling the bibliography, and standardizing my, ah, creative transliterations.
I couldn t have written this book without the best of feline companionship-ably and adorably provided by Faintly Macabre and Chroma the Great. By stealing my pens and bookmarks, threatening to shred wayward notepapers, and attacking typing fingers, Faintly forces me to be alert, self-aware, and conscious of my surroundings in a way that I hope would elicit at least faint recognition and approval from the rabbis of the Mishnah. And her boldness and willingness to frankly assert her needs is a fine model indeed for those of us who have been socialized to be habitually deferential (although her consideration of the needs of others could still use a bit of work). Chroma, meanwhile-with her unfailingly sweet nature; adorable squeaks, chirps, and burbles; and impossibly soft fur-is an utter ray of light who can be counted on to relieve stress and put things in perspective when nothing else can. Really, all writers (who like cats and aren t insurmountably allergic to them) who can have cats should.
And, of course, no acknowledgment would be complete without Sarah Epstein-Levi, whose love, support, and practical assistance have played a key role in making this book what it is. Sarah s psychological knowledge and scientific sensibilit